As President of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development in eastern Kentucky for the past 10 years, Justin says that “We are trying to create this new sense of what is possible, so we run a lot of direct projects that create tangible examples on the ground of sustainable development at work.” These include a combination carbon offset/certified forestry products program that has about 30,000 acres under sustainable management now and How$mart, an energy retrofit financing program.

Justin credits his grandmother – a systems thinker and teacher concerned about poverty in Appalachia – with inspiring his own commitment to seek out and address the root causes of key socio-environmental challenges. Read the full article.